Category Archives: Haley Barbour Soft-On-Crime Award

Four news accounts of animal cruelty crossed the Pack News Wire this morning. The first thoughts that came to mind are two of our regular awards – the Wacky Mentality Award and the Haley Barbour Soft-on-Crime Award.

Man charged with dragging puppy: A Chicago man has been charged with dragging a puppy down the sidewalk, leaving a trail of blood. The Chicago Tribune reports the man told police – “This is how you teach a dog to walk.” – Wacky Mentality Award

Police officer cited for beating death of cat: A police officer in Maryland was given just a $50 fine for beating an injured cat to death with his nightstick. – Haley Barbour Soft-on-Crime Award

Tennessee man accused of torturing dog for four hours: A charge of aggravated animal cruelty is out for a man accused of torturing a four-pound dog for four hours. He allegedly threw the dog down a staircase, tried to drown her and then put her in a clothes dryer for several minutes, during the long process of killing her.

Man shoots dog; doesn’t know where he lives: An Idaho man shot a stray dog on his property and was charged with animal cruelty and discharging a firearm in city limits. He called KPVI News 6 to offer his side of the story, which involved admitting he didn’t call animal control because he didn’t know he lived within the city limits.

And because he didn’t know he lived within city limits, he didn’t know he’d be charged with firing his gun there. The local media should ask him if he recalls paying city property taxes at any point in time.

As the movement grows to protect animals from cruelty, the push back against proposals for animal welfare regulations seems to be growing as well.

I’ve got a couple of links below to highlight the effort to hide or protect those engaged in cruel acts. But first up today, I introduce a new award – the Haley Barbour Soft-On-Crime Award. It is dedicated to the Mississippi Governor who recently pardoned a number of convicted criminals – including murderers.

The charges were dropped on several conditions, including the order that the couple cannot “own and operate any animal breeding or animal sales businesses for two years.” – Just TWO YEARS. Animal welfare officials will have the right to inspect the property to make sure they are not breeding over this span.

The county manager was quoted as saying he wants to make sure no one operates a puppy mill in his county. Or did he mean to say that he wanted to make sure no one operates a puppy mill for the next two years.

Weak punishment only sends a message to other puppy millers that even if they are exposed, the end result will be a slap on the wrist. So for this decision, Stokes County gets the Pack Mentality Blog’s first Haley Barbour Soft-On-Crime Award.

In Missouri, a bogus bill has been introduced to make sure animals never get human rights.

“The laws of this state shall not confer upon any animal a right, privilege, or legal status that is equivalent or that exceeds a right, privilege, or legal status as that which this state confers by law upon a human being. This provision shall not be construed as limiting laws that protect the welfare of animals in the state.”

Horrors!!! – Animals might get property rights or the right to vote. The state representative is quoted as saying his mission was to keep animal-rights organizations from coming into his state to impose new protections for animals.

Translation: “We don’t want anyone coming into our state uncovering cruel acts against animals. Some of us hate sunshine and we don’t really like animals either.”

He does stress that the new law would not weaken existing animal-welfare laws. That’s not very comforting for the animals who are living with the current level of very weak animal-welfare regulations. The bill is really designed to block any new protections.

The goal of every new proposal I’m seeing across the country is to protect animals from abuse and neglect. How is this being twisted into a claim that we want animals to have equal rights to humans? Yes, it’s true – we want both humans and animals to be protected from abuse and neglect. No reasonable person could oppose that – right?

In an article posted today on the Weekly Times Now website out of Australia, Joe Maxwell, the HSUS director of rural development and outreach is quoted as saying – “Anytime you try to block whistleblower-type activity, I think you wind up with horrendous outcomes and in this case, for the animals on the farms it could be, as well, for the environment or worker treatment.”